eGGSA Graves - Eastern Cape

Cemetery information:- Information by Christopher Fitchet: The farm Lessendrum. The 1820 Settler, William Cock, arrived with the Cock's party on the Weymouth established his son Cornelius on coastal land between the Great Fish and Mpekweni river mouths. After Cornelius died in 1908, his seven children continued to farm the Cock properties in the Peddie district.In the mid-1800s, Cornelius Cock settled on land north of the Fish River in the Eastern Cape. The property remained in the family’s possession until it was expropriated for inclusion in the Ciskei homeland in 1980. The property then owned by the Cock family comprises the farms Lessendrum, Newcastle, Salisbury Plain, Thornhill, Ravensworth and Winnowdale in the former Ciskei, totalling about 2 400ha. The occupation of Alexander Charles Bisset, also an 1820 settler who arrived with the Willson's party on the La Belle Alliance, is mentioned as a farmer at Lessendrum. My own family are also connected to Lessendrum through the marriage of Benjamin Leach to Berryl Cock. Benjamin Leach died on Lessendrum and Ed Cock shared the following with me: “Yes I can shed some light on Ben Leach for you. I met him only once when I was about 12 years old, on Lessendrum. My parents with me made a trip from East London to visit the Lessendrum family in +/- 1953. Ben was the 2nd husband of Beryl Miriam Cock (born Gotze) and he with his wife lived with the Cock family on the farm. Beryl’s 1st husband was Hastings (Paddy) Cock and they also lived on Lessendrum, in a small dwelling they built for themselves close to the main homestead. He is buried in the cemetery on the farm, he being the only non Cock. His grave does not have a gravestone on it and is situated about 10 meters closer to the sea than the rest of the graves. In about 1975 my father and I cast a concrete sill or slab (I cannot remember which) on his grave. Beryl continued to live with the family until her death in 1964.” Album complete, all visible graves were photographed. eGGSA captions by: James Anderson & Brenda Gassner The GGSA Cemetery DVD only has information on the cemetery location. Cemetery ID: 6661 Google Earth Cemetery Initiative Information:- GPSID: 7982 GPS: -33 27.235, 27 11.618